Date: Wed, 25 Feb 98 6:41:33 EST From: boddhisatva <kbevans-AT-panix.com> Subject: Re: M-I: Existence of Value C. Sid, What if physiscists had been satisfied that the "laws" that Newton discovered were teh last word on the universe? Not a pretty picture. Physical laws don't "operate." They are not things and they don't exist. They are human metaphors for the universe. Likewise the LTV is a metaphor. As a metaphor it's good, but then so was Newtonian Dynamics. Einstein and Bohr were even better. Feynman was good, too. The LTV is lovely, but in the final analysis it conflates profit and the power conferred by property relations. That's fine if one is looking for "equillibrium", except there is no such thing. If you don't believe me, ask Newton. I imagine that has found out by now that God does indeed play quantum dice and that those dice are thermodynamically loaded. Labor-value is to economics what the aether is to physics. It is a mystical, chimerical place-holder necessary only until a more rigorous analysis comes along. It's time we started developing that analysis. Like the old-time physicists who believed in the aether, Marx was doing his best to show us the nature of the universe of political economy. Now we all see that exploitation, and we can get on with analyzing it instead of trying to prove a theory for its own sake. Labor does not create value. It does not necessarily create things which have value or even things at all. It creates tiredness and the expectation of payment. Usefulness creates value. peace --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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